Today's Notables

Recently, the results of the 2002 public opinion poll conducted by the Ministry of Education regarding the Japanese language were released. Most of the respondents expressed a feeling of change in daily Japanese language specifically referring to the younger generation. Despite the influence of youth on the language, difficult vernacular and confusion in the language has become more pronounced. However, compared to two years ago, the people who responded, "Japanese is confusing," decreased 5.4% while those that responded "Japanese is not more confusing" increased 6.7% for a total of 17%. For example, when we pay at the register at a fast food or family restaurant, the clerk will either say, "Your total comes to 1,000 yen," or "Out of 1,000 yen." Neither seems necessarily wrong or offensive to the ear and therefore, it will not be too long that both are considered correct Japanese according to the results of the poll. Furthermore, Japanese has become inundated with katakana loan words which many people say they do not understand. Although, I do not necessarily recommend katakana loan words, they seem to appear in many different arenas. They are especially unavoidable in the world of business. There are some words that I have heard and could not respond to. These are some of the same words that had a low level of understanding in the public opinion poll.
Following is a list of those words that seem to appear most often. Many words are derived from English but there are a few from other languages.